It is common practice to mount a plurality of separate antennas, which may include both receiving and transmitting antennas, on a single antenna tower. Further, it is traditional practice to mount one of the antennas on the top of the antenna tower and to rotate the one antenna by means of an electric motor and gear reducer. The remainder of the antennas are then mounted to the face of the antenna tower at various heights thereto. Thus only one antenna, that is, the antenna which is mounted to the top of the tower, is rotatable, and the remainder of the antennas are fixedly secured to the antenna tower.
Alternately, several antennas are mounted to one antenna rotator on the top of the antenna tower. This method of mounting has the disadvantage that all antennas must be rotated together, thus greatly diminishing the usefulness of the various antennas. Also, this method of mounting is limited in the type and number of antennas that can be rotated because of structural limitations.
When it has been desirable, or necessary, to rotate one of the face-mounted antennas, it has been customary to attach this antenna to the antenna tower by means of an outrigger, or side arm, that extends longitudinally out from the antenna tower. When the antenna tower consists of three vertically-disposed tower legs and truss bracing, it has been customary to construct this side arm from a section of the tower material.
This face-mounted antenna is then mounted at the outer end of the side arm by means of a second electric motor and gear reducer. This type of mounting for a rotatable antenna is highly unsatisfactory because of the effect of the metal in the antenna tower. That is, when this face-mounted and rotatable antenna is directed so that the antenna tower is directly behind the antenna, the antenna may be tuned for high performance. However, as the antenna is rotated to an angle where the antenna tower is to one side or the other of the antenna, the tuning of the antenna will be adversely affected. Further, as the antenna is rotated farther, not only will the tuning of the antenna further deteriorate, but also, the direction-sensing ability of the antenna will be adversely affected. That is, if this rotatable antenna is used as a search antenna, false directional readings will be indicated. Then, as the antenna is rotated to face the antenna tower, its tuning will be degraded even more, making the antenna highly ineffective either for transmission or receiving of radio frequencies.
Alternately, face-mounted antennas have been rotated by rotating the entire antenna tower. Of course, this requires an extremely large, heavy, and costly mechanism, is practical only for relatively short antenna towers of the non-guy-wired type, and has the additional disadvantage that all antennas are rotated simultaneously.
Kulikowski, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,623,999, shows an antenna that is mounted to a sleeve which is disposed coaxially around an antenna tower of the tubular mast type, and that is rotated by an electric drive motor. Kulikowski teaches a method of conductance coupling of the antenna to the lead-in conductors; but he does not address the technical problems of providing a workable rotating mount for face-mounting antennas to an antenna tower.
In particular, Kulikowski does not show, disclose, claim, or even intimate the need for, nor solutions for: vertically supporting the antenna, radially guiding the antenna, guiding against sideward tipping of the antenna-mounting ring, counterbalancing of torsional wind loads, use with towers of the trussed tower-leg type rather than the tubular mast type, electrical heating to overcome icing problems, or means for partially assembling the rotating device at ground level and then moving up past guy wires, all of which are advancements of the present invention.